The Courtship of Marie-Jeanne

Louis did not consider Boudreaux to be nearly good enough for his sister. For one thing, Joseph Boudreaux did not have much by way of land, especially compared to their step-father. Boudreaux mostly raised pigs, and only had three slaves. His house was simple; he'd built it himself after leaving his own daddy's house, having used money he was given at his coming-of-age to buy the little bit of land near the bayou. He had a vegetable garden, but those were for him and his slaves to cook and eat; it was the pigs that made him any money, and sometimes a haul of shrimp or crayfish.

How Boudreaux had come into his step-father's circle, Louis was not sure. Joseph Boudreaux was not impolite, but did not dress well either, the way so many of Jacques' friends did. Boudreaux had simply begun to show up at this and that gathering, and of course it hadn't been long before Marie-Jeanne caught his eye.

And why shouldn't she? Marie-Jeanne had, in fact, caught the eyes of many a gentleman in Ascension--indeed, in the parish at large, as word of her loveliness and good nature had spread--so why shouldn't lowly Joseph Boudreaux also notice her? She had the lustrous dark hair of their mother, those blue eyes the shade of slightly turbulent water, skin that had turned an almond color in the Southern sun, and a smattering of freckles over her pert nose and beautifully angled cheeks. Marie-Jeanne found these mortifying, but Louis knew they added to her girlish looks, and those, in turn, added to her charm. Besides, the spots were light enough that one had to be looking Marie-Jeanne almost straight in the eye to see them.

But of all the potential suitors--many of whom were young men with expectations of inheriting a fair amount of property, and some older gentlemen who had a their share of holdings already--Marie-Jeanne singled out Joseph Boudreaux.

He was tall and wiry, more tan than any gentleman should have been, and his hands were slightly calloused, giving away the fact that Boudreaux did some of the work on his land himself, instead of leaving it to the help. His hair was dark and oily, making him seem always unclean, and his ever rumpled clothing did not aid this impression. Confronted with such a picture, Louis simply could not see what it was in Joseph Boudreaux that seemed to draw his sister.

But draw her he did. Once Marie-Jeanne was "out" (that is, once she was sixteen and able to circulate in society on a level at which mere children were not allowed), she could be found at many a social gathering, surrounded by admirers and a few girls her age--about whom Louis could never quite determine whether they really did like his sister, or whether they were hoping to catch some crumbs from her overflowing table of suitors. But as weeks and then months went on, the focus began to narrow, and more and more often Marie-Jeanne could be seen standing with only two or three persistent hopefuls, one of whom was invariably Joseph Boudreaux. And then even the last few fell away, and there would be only Marie-Jeanne and Boudreaux, standing slightly too close in the corner of the room, or else (worse, in Louis' mind) out on the verandah, where the candlelight from inside barely managed to penetrate the dusk, and the heady scent of jasmine, magnolia, gardenia could easily sway the better senses.

Finally, Louis approached his step-father. "He's not a bad fellow," was all Jacques said.

"Marie could do much better," Louis insisted. "Boudreaux won't be able to give her the kind of life she's used to."

"For some women that sort of thing doesn't matter much. Marie-Jeanne strikes me as a sensible girl who knows her own mind and heart. More, she strikes me as the kind of girl who would make sacrifices for love."

But Louis was shaking his head. "You don't know her like I do." It was a fact, simple and true, and Jacques didn't deny it. "Marie may believe it now, but she has romantic notions, and she'll regret it sooner rather than later."

"Well, he hasn't asked me for her at any rate," Jacques told him. "Maybe we should wait until he does--if he does--before we worry about it overmuch."